President Donald Trump‘s weekend post defending Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files has triggered an unprecedented backlash, marking the first time the Republican has been “ratioed” on his own social media platform, Truth Social.
The term “ratioed” refers to when a social media post receives more replies than likes or shares, often signaling more disagreement or criticism than support.
In his Saturday evening post, Trump lashed out at those criticizing Bondi, calling her performance “FANTASTIC” and dismissing the ongoing interest in Epstein as a waste of time.
“We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening,” the president wrote. “Let’s not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”
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The post—lengthy, defensive, and directed at his own base—appears to have backfired. According to public engagement data archived from Truth Social, the post has garnered more than 36,000 replies, compared with nearly 11,000 re-truths (the platform’s term for shares) and 32,000 likes as of 10:45 a.m. ET Sunday.
Why It Matters
The backlash on Truth Social reflects growing internal division among MAGA supporters, many of whom have spent months anticipating revelations from the so-called “Epstein Files.”
Unlike mainstream social media platforms, Truth Social was designed as a haven for Trump and his supporters, where engagement overwhelmingly leans positive.
What To Know
The internal rift appears to stem from growing frustration over unfulfilled promises related to the Epstein case. Trump and several of his allies had long suggested that secret documents, including a so-called “client list,” would be released under his administration. Bondi had previously claimed to possess such a list.
But last week, the Justice Department announced that no list exists and reaffirmed that Epstein acted alone, dying by suicide in jail in 2019. The anticlimactic conclusion and the administration’s refusal to release further files sparked fury from parts of Trump’s base, especially activists and influencers who had built expectations around broader revelations.
At the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa this weekend, chants calling for Bondi’s resignation could be heard. Trump’s post defending her appeared to be a direct response to that dissent, but it only fueled it further.
A user called Mother Rosie wrote: “This statement breaks my heart, Mr. President. I have four daughters, and live in Texas, where families lost little children. I can’t even begin to comprehend the flipped narrative that ‘it was so long ago’ ‘why are we still talking about this’ and ‘nobody should care.’ These victims were some ones daughters, sisters, nieces, granddaughter. Someone’s child. Please reconsider, sir. I voted for everything you are doing! Accountability was not something negotiable.”
Another woman, Crissy, who can be seen wearing a Trump-supporting beanie in her profile picture, said: “We want the ELITE PEDOS exposed! You promised us that. Pam promised us that. Kash promised us that. Now it’s OUR fault bc we want that promise fulfilled and call Pam out every time she lies? What else has she lied to us about?”
A third user, Dewayne Sykes, said: “This is going to cost you so many supporters. I being one of them.”
There will still some people speaking out in support of Trump in the comments, including from Navy veteran known as Robby F, who said: “We all want to know. But President Trump only has the evidence that these criminals left for him to find. If he gets his hands on anything that’s useful, we will know.”
How the Analysis Was Done
The data comes from an open-source GitHub repository which scrapes and stores all of Trump’s Truth Social posts along with public metrics including reply count, like count, and re-truths. Using this dataset—which includes over 1,000 posts since 2022—Newsweek applied a filter to identify any posts where the number of replies exceeded both likes and shares. Only one post met that condition: the July 12, 2025 post defending Pam Bondi.
Other posts in the archive occasionally drew large reply volumes, but in every case until now, likes or re-truths outnumbered them. This post represents the first—and so far only—time Trump was publicly rebuked by more of his own followers than supported him.
Mehmet Eser/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
What People Are Saying
FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X on Saturday afternoon: “The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been. It’s an honor to serve the President of the United States @realDonaldTrump—and I’ll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me.”
Far-right political activist Laura Loomer on Saturday wrote on X: “President Trump says he thinks Blondi [sic] is ‘doing a Fantastic job’ as AG in a post he posted on Truth Social today….”
Charlie Kirk, conservative founder and president of Turning Point USA, wrote on X: “President Trump on the Epstein Files, says he supports Pam Bondi at AG, the files are untrustworthy and created by Comey and Brennan. He wants his Justice Department focused on the voter fraud, the rigged election, ActBlue, and arresting thugs and criminals.”
What Happens Next
While Trump used his Truth Social post to try shift focus away from the Epstein controversy, his followers seem unconvinced.
The administration now faces the challenge of reuniting a fractured base ahead of the 2026 midterms elections.